WRESTLING

Phil English on wrestling | Lane thankful for Schneider's second chance

January 30, 2012|Phil English | Phil English on high school wrestling

With his team more than 100 points ahead of the rest of the field and well on its way to a third straight Chicago Public League championship, Lane coach Mark Miedona took a few minutes to reflect on the last four years.

And give thanks for second chances.

In the late fall of 2008, 15-year-old Max Schneider walked into his office with a question.

"He came in and told me he was a top-ranked national judo champion and that he thought he might be pretty good at wrestling," said Miedona, now in his ninth season at Lane and sixth as head coach. "First of all, he missed the first team meeting. Then he shows up and I'm looking at this kid and thinking, 'What kind of story is this?'"

"And he told me to take my cock and bull story somewhere else," Schneider said with a laugh.

"All I know is thank goodness he showed up for practice the next day," Miedona said.

The rest is history for Lane. The Indians program was already on the rise in Miedona's second year as head coach. Schneider's arrival, and his eventual success, including a 145-pound state title in 2010, helped make Lane the class of the Public League and one of the top teams in the state.

Less than a year after Schneider's title as a sophomore he injured his shoulder during a holiday tournament, ending any realistic chance of defending his crown. Despite the pain, he wrestled in spots, helping his team win a regional championship. He returned a week later in sectional action to post another win and nearly help vault the Indians downstate. Instead they fell short of Machesney Park Harlem by two points.

He's back to near 100 percent this year and hopes he and Lane can pick up where they left off last year.

"I'd do anything for my team. My team is my family," said Schneider, who took home a gold medal in judo at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore. "That's the one thing you don't get in judo. Judo's an individual sport. There's no real team aspect. That's what I love about wrestling. You win together or lose together."

Miedona hopes Schneider's four-year presence will help make Lane a continued threat in the city and the suburbs. He's already seeing the results in the wrestling room.

"These guys are used to the Schneider story," Miedona said. "It's not even a headline to them any more. Now they're feeding off what he might have started. Now we've got 13 or 14 guys on the team trying to duplicate it."

The key to success: Other than Schneider's presence on the team, Lane has developed into a solid program because Miedona isn't afraid to take his team where other city programs rarely wander — the suburbs.

"We go to the suburbs and the Catholic schools and wrestle them, but we also don't want to pretend that we're too good and won't wrestle city schools," Miedona said. "If a kid never leaves the city and has a great record, sometimes they'll go into the postseason and lose to a kid in the suburbs with a .500 record. His first instinct is to say he had a bad day or the other kid got lucky, but that's not the case. You have to see that kind of competition, so we try to provide that level of competition for the rest of the city."

The Indians went to tournaments this year at Wheeling, Glenbrook South, Maine East and Lincoln in central Illinois. But they may not be at the Dvorak Tournament in Machesney Park any time soon.

"The truth is we were in it. When I was wrestling here we were in it," Miedona said. "Then they asked us to stop coming. They dis-invited us before I got here as a coach.

"I think they weren't too happy with our numbers or the way we were competing years ago. I think if they want us to come, they can send me an invitation. I don't think I should ask to get back in when they stopped sending us a contract. If they want us there, they can invite us."